Falling for his roommate gives ex footballer Micah the second chance he deserves, and what could be better than loving your best friend?MicahI’m a broke ex-football player with a bum leg and PTSD. Last summer, I had two choices: the streets, or find a cheap room to rent in the city. I chose the second option, which landed me with a brand-new problem, cos I hadn’t banked on my roommate becoming my … my roommate becoming my best friend. Or that before long I’d find myself head over heels in love with him. Trouble is, even if Sam likes me back, I ain’t fit to be no one’s boyfriend. I don’t know how. All I do is wade through every precious moment and hope that he doesn’t regret the day he ever met me.
Sam
I’m a gay book nerd with no business falling in love with hunky athletes. Micah is the dictionary definition of beautiful, inside and out, he just doesn’t know it. And he definitely doesn’t know I’m ridiculously in love with him. The embarrassing kind of love.
He’s all I can think about.
But it’s not as simple as loving someone who doesn’t love me back. Micah is damaged goods—at least, that’s how he’d put it. The world has chewed him up and spat him out, and he thinks he deserved it. That he’s still the battered mess he was a year ago.
I want to shake him, and shout in his face that he’s not. To force the truth on him and make him believe in himself the way I do. But I can’t save Micah. One day, perhaps he’ll realise that he already saved himself.
Previously published as Falling For My Roommate. No new content
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Just what I expect from the queen of angst and realism. Love this book so much, and the journey taken by Micah is so painful, and Sam is such an amazing guy. Highly recommended.
Sam struck it lucky with his roommate, Micah an ex football player (that’s soccer for us US people). Micah also feels that he got lucky in the roommate department as Sam does things for him, like cooking breakfast even when he worked late the night before. For both it’s extra time they get to see each other, even if they both play it off as something less. Micah wants Sam but his injury and the fact that his life has been torn to shreds by the papers and he feels guilty even thinking to put Sam through that. Sam wants Micah, but he doesn’t think that he can even measure up to what Micah wants or needs. After their wants come to light, and they act on their desires, will the press be the reason that the two can’t work? Will their life spread out in the news cause what little happiness they created to end?
This was a very deep and slow story; dealing a lot with Micah and his injury and a few other things. For me this was just an ok read with loads of drama. I give this 3.5 stars.
Well, this one was remarkable low on the angst considering who the author is. Saying that it’s not a fluffy read but it’s not a ‘wrench your heart out of your chest and stomp on it’ read either.
I pretty much devoured it in one day, a day, I might add, when I had an all day headache that nothing would shift. If that doesn’t show you how invested I was in Sam and Micah’s tale then nothing will.
Sam is sweet, an adorable displaced Yorkshire lad in love with his famous (and infamous) flatmate. Sam also has terrible self-esteem and, quite honestly, the patience of a saint. But he also has a tendency to jump to conclusions (see self esteem issues above).
Micah is a former ‘footballer, cokehead, drunk, closeted Grindr user’, who originally appeared in Lucky. After his (literal) fall from grace, he is living a quiet life in somebody else’s spare room, with any number of (prescribed) pills to fix the demons in his head. He is a mess, carrying a torch for his roommate and just surviving not living; I loved him quite literally from the first page.
This book is one long ‘big misunderstanding’ trope (Sam, who is an English lit student, even jokes about this) but one that is believable because it is character driven. And these guys are real, broken people. Ones who don’t always talk to each other, don’t believe they are good enough, let outside influences affect their judgement and reactions.
Highly recommended.
Oh, and Garrett, I want to know what is going on with Freddie… Just saying.
Editing to add my comments on the audiobook.
Performance – 5
Story – 4
Overall – 5
I originally read and reviewed this book when the ebook was released back in March. I really enjoyed Dan Calley’s performance of the story. He does great voices and accents for the different characters. There isn’t much more I can say about it so I’m including the text of my original review of the ebook below.
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Sam and Micah need to communicate more.
I enjoyed reading Falling for My Roommate but it didn’t pack the same emotional punch for me as other books I’ve read by Garrett Leigh. As I was reading it felt like I’d read the story before but couldn’t put my finger on what book of hers it might be similar to. In any case, it was still a good story in its own right.
Falling For My Roommate is told in first person POV, alternating between Sam and Micah. Take a look at the blurb for details about the story. The biggest issue I had with Sam and Micah is that they didn’t communicate with each other the way they needed to. I guess that’s really par for what happens in real life as well. They are attracted to each other but are afraid to tell.
Micah has suffered a terrible injury to his leg and it ended his football (soccer in the US) career. He loves living with Sam and wants to tell him how he feels but he can’t seem to open up fully about his injury and other things that happened before he left football.
The fact that Micah is holding back something bothers Sam but he loves Micah so much that he won’t push him because he’s afraid it might make Micah run away.
Once these two finally decide to be honest with each other about their feelings I enjoyed the story more. There’s a fair amount of angst due to all of the problems that Micah has but it seemed to be the right amount for the book. Having seen depression up close and personal, I appreciated the realistic way that Garrett Leigh treated Micah’s illness in the story.
A copy of this book was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***